Surely you must know when you buy an option that all you are...

Surely you must know when you buy an option that all you are doing is buying the right to purchase shares at a set price at a pre-determined date in the future. If the options are out of the money you would be foolish to exercise the option.At the time when the option lapses you need to accept your loss and put it down to experience. Option holders are the top of the speculation market players who hope to secure leverage over and above the true owners of the company.
ie. the shareholders. You can rest assured that if the company did extend and you had to pay extra cash for the right to extend that you would be just throwing good money after bad. My advice is learn by the experience and get over it.